Notice of Memoirs — A. W. Waters. 
219 
we find further evidence that the ancient ganoids formed the parent 
stock from which the succeeding fishes, amphibians, and reptiles 
liave diverged. In some sauroid Devonian fishes the position and 
structure of the teeth foreshadow those of the Labyrinthodont reptiles, 
in others the throat is protected by gular plates, a fashion l’etained 
in the Carboniferous araphibia. Again, in some species the scales 
are surface pitted, like the scutes of Crocodiles. While, in the noto- 
chordal weak-limbed amphibians of the Coal-measures, with minute 
body scales, and partly osseous skulls, we cannot fail to recognize 
structural peculiarities now found in the swamp-dwelling mud-fishes. 
Thus in the anomalous “ scaled sirens,” we liave the “ persistent 
type ” of an ancient group of fishes, in which now, as in the old 
time, the piscine and amphibian charaoters are so united as to com- 
pletely eflface the line of demarcation between the Orders, and eifectu- 
ally link the fishes to the reptiles. 
itotices of zmhezmzoizeäs. 
PrOCEEDINGS OF THE MANCHESTER LlTERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 
Society, vol. xvi. No. 10, p. 171. Session 1876-77. — Ordinary 
Meeting, March 6, 1877. 
A PAPER was read by Mr. Arthur Win. Waters, F.G.S., entitled 
“ Inquiries concerning a Change of Position of the Earth’s 
Axis.” The autlior stated that the cause of the greater warmth in 
high latitudes during the Tertiary period had not, in the opinion of 
many, yet received any satisfactory solution. 
The Arctic Miocene Flora was considered. 356 Miocene species 
of plants have already been determined from latitude 70-77 N. in 
Spitzbergen and Greenland, and include Taxodium (swamp cypress 
of Texas), Sequoia, birch, lime, oak, beech, plane, and even mag- 
nolia ; so that Prof. Heer, by comparison of the localities of these, 
says that the temperature must have been 30° F. warmer than at 
present. Fossil floras of the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Carboniferous 
periods have been discovered witliin the arctic circle. Most of these 
plants are unable to resist severe cold, besides requiring a warm 
summer, and it seems difficult to accept the fact of their flowering 
and ripening their seeds, where the winters are so long and the 
summers so short, and, apart from the lower temperature, where the 
amount of light is so much diminished. 
Several theories have been brought forward to explain the cold of 
the Glacial Period, the generally received one being that of Mr. 
Croll, that it was brought about indirectly from an increase in the 
eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, modified by the obliquity of the 
ecliptic. In the longer and colder winters more snow feil, which the 
summer could not melt away, so that the earth now covered gets 
little of the warmth of the sun. As this explanation has not always 
been thought quite satisfactory with regard to the greater warmth, 
the change of the position of the earth’s axis has from time to time 
been suggested on various grounds. 
